Carrier!: Life Aboard a World War II Aircraft Carrier

Carrier!, first published in 1944 as Daybreak for our Carrier, is an overview of life on a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier in the Pacific during World War II. Author Lt. Commander Max Miller spent many weeks at sea gathering material for the book, and presents his observations in an easy-to read fashion. As the book is intended to provide civilians with a glimpse into what life aboard these massive ships was like, “...the carrier is any carrier. The battle is any battle. Here is the way the men of the carrier think and feel, from the moment of leaving port, through the long days of zigzagging into enemy waters, the mounting tension as the moment of battle draws near, the furious hours of attack, the losses and the triumph, the return homeward. Here, on duty and at play, are the pilots and gunners, the plane-handlers and the ammunition passers, the flight officers and the chaplains—all the hundreds and hundreds of young Americans who work and fight the carrier...” (from the Foreword).